Ms. K
Cute Bulletin Board with Social Studies and Math Integrated!
Well, I haven’t been behind a computer screen much at all this week because I have been putting my room back together and decorating my door. I don’t have many bulletin boards to cutesy up, so I take out my cutesyness on my door. I thought I would share this idea with you all. I came up with this idea last year when there was discussion about integrating science and social studies into math and literacy. I had read the book America by the Numbers: One Nation which made me want to decorate my door with a flag and ask questions about the number of stars, stripes, etc to infuse math. 
The only problem I faced was finding an appropriately sized flag. To buy a large one was too much money and too large for my door. The only other ones I had seen while shopping were too small. Just my luck last week I was talking to a colleague who didn’t want a large flag covering up her only window. So, we traded flags because I had an extra one that was smaller from somewhere rolled up in a closet. Now, what to use for a background? I was originally going to use some cloud bulletin board paper at available at teacher stores when I stumbled across this adorable sparkly fireworks fabric at Jo-Anne’s. A little plug for Jo-Anne’s–they offer teacher discounts! Then I made some white stars for the door with math questions in them to stimulate student thinking. If you want to use this idea, I made the stars available for free here: StarsForFlagBulletinBoard.
Back to School Sale on Teachers Pay Teachers!
Hey, everyone, mark your calendars for August 12th and 13th. That is next Sunday and Monday. TPT will be having a sale. All items will be on sale UP TO 28% off. The products in my store will all be 28% off! Be sure to grab all of the items you have been swooning over. Now is the time to stock up!
Should You Sell Products on Teachers Pay Teachers?
I have noticed a lot of people read a very old post I had done on this topic, so I thought I would re-post about the growth I have seen in my endeavor. I joined TPT in September of 2008. I put a few items up which were only one page that I charged $1 for. Every now in a blue moon one of them would sell , and so I wasn’t very motivated to work hard at this. Last spring (2011) I started seeing the emails from TPT about Deanna Jump who had made more than her teaching salary. I thought, “What am I missing here?” From that point on, I got very serious about selling my items on TPT. I got software to turn my items into PDF files. All summer of 2011, I worked many, many hours to put materials up on the TPT site. I think I sold one item all last summer. Then August came and I made $11.58. Mind you previous to this for all the 3 years I had products up, I had only made about $11. Then September came, and I made $16.74. It was at this point that I decided to upgrade my account and pay the $60 a year. Previously I had the basic account where TPT takes a pretty large percentage of your sales however you pay no annual fee. When you decide to become a premium seller, they only take 15% of your sales–which is totally worth it if you are selling $15 a month or so. My sales only grew from there and steadily increased each month of the school year until I was making more than $100 a month. Each time I got an email saying that I had sold an item, it just made my day. I find it so gratifying that someone actually values the work that I do, and uses it to teach their own students. I readily share the items with my colleagues at work, but somehow it is different when someone searches out what you did and finds it useful.
I won’t sugar coat the amount of work that went into what I did. Selling on TPT takes work and patience. I spent nearly every night sitting on the couch with my laptop after school working on my blog or on my products, and most of the summer that way as well. I definitely would have made a lot more money with a part time job or doing after school tutoring. However, the work that I do on making my products as perfect as possible helps me during the day with my ‘real’ job because I use those things with the students I work with. I just make them as pristine as possible to sell at home. Selling an item on TPT is gratifying because the extra hours I spend working on something are actually rewarded. I have learned SO much from this venture through blogging, through selling, through the comments on my blog, and on TPT. I would dare say selling on TPT has given me an edge because I am learning through a world wide community which I hadn’t known was out there previous to this venture. I am very thankful for this and for friends who encouraged me to pursue this further when I had only a small measure of success. If you have the time to work outside of school and want to learn a lot from a community of talented teachers, then I would recommend you join the ranks of successful teacherpreneurs, too.
Click to go directly to the TPT site and begin selling now.
To Teach or Not to Teach the Cent Sign?
I love it when I’m right. The other day I was having a friendly debate with another teacher about whether or not to teach the cent sign with the new common core standards. After all, sometimes students use the dollar sign at the same time along with the decimal point and get them confused. I argued, however, that you still see the cent sign at times in stores , but this person argued that you don’t see the cent sign anymore…well, here you go…the cent sign at back to school time! Seventeen cents for a spiral bound notebook. My proof that IT IS STILL IN USE, so we still need to teach students how to read them!
I’ll let you in on my little secret. Now beware it is a little simple and silly, but kids love silly and so my story works.
The cent sign at one time was the dollar sign’s girlfriend, but they broke up. Then the dollar sign and the decimal point got married, so they are seen together almost always. The cent sign got her feelings hurt when the dollar sign got married to the decimal, and so she ran away. THE END.
Adapt and embellish the story to fit your personal style. Now just remind your kids of this story any time they get confused about the notation of dollars and cents, and they will remember which sign to use.
Office Depot NOW Decides to Sweeten Teachers’ Shopping Deal!
Yesterday, I stepped on out to the mailbox, and what did I find? Office Depot Coupons! Not only that, but some extra good news. Office Depot is now offering teachers a 10% discount all year long! They have redeemed themselves. I had always felt it was disappointing to shop at Office Depot and to have a teacher “discount card” that didn’t give you a discount on much…hmph!
For Teacher Appreciation week they are offering a 20% discount and a Teacher Discount Bag with product samples (my favorite!). The coupons in the mailer are for $10 off a $50 purchase and for 30% off packs of Elmer glue sticks–I still don’t know if that will beat Wal-mart’s glue stick deal at 0.10 cents! I’m feeling a little Black Fridayish about August’s back to school sales.
The ABSOLUTE BEST COMMON CORE RESOURCE EVER!
Have you been rolling your pants up to wade through the language of the common core standards? Oh, look, I think I just saw an octopus swim by! Well, I have! I have been working with the other math coaches in my district to build a guide for many days (both this year and last) to help decipher the common core standards into a teaching guide. After all of that hard work, I have happened across the most amazing resource to help teachers understand the standards. North Carolina has taken each and every language and math standard and broken them down into much more friendly language for teachers. In North Carolina’s own words, they have answered the questions: “What does this standard mean that a student must know and be able to do?” These standards are complete with examples, too! They have unpacked the standards for us! I don’t know about you, but I am really starting to be fond of North Carolina. Take a look at the example below. If you click on it, they you will be directed to the North Carolina website.
Back To School Teacher Appreciation Discounts and Events!
Don’t you love to walk into Wal-mart during back to school season? I do. I want to buy 10 boxes of crayons for 25 cents even if I don’t need them. And who can pass up spiral notebooks for 20 cents? Well, in the spirit of back to school season which is soon encroaching, I thought I would whip up a list of teacher discounts for you. Teacher discount days make back to school season so much more fun!
- Office Depot is hosting the event August 5th-11th, 2012. During this week you will enjoy a hefty 20% off of your purchase with your star teacher discount card. If you wait until August 11th from 9-11 you will also enjoy a teacher breakfast, and giveaways in my area. If you live somewhere other than near me in good ole’ Arkansas, you need to put in your zip code here to find out when the event will be held.
- At Staples’ back to school event they will be giving away free gift bags to the first 100 customers. Click here to find out when the event will be held in your area. (I especially love staples for their crazy shaped paper clips–ones that look like purses, high heels, flowers, animals, etc.!)
- Mardel’s will be holding their education sale on July 19th, 2012. They will be offering 20% off of all of their educational products and school supplies. They will also be extending their hours from 8 a.m. -10 p.m. You may also register to win an iPad!
- Big Lots (news to me) also has a teacher appreciation day. They will be hosting one Saturday, August 11, 2012. To find a Big Lots store near you click here.
- Office Max offers lots of goodies for teachers as well on their event day. You get a free tote bag and coupons. Also, they are offering 25% off of everything you can fit inside your tote bag. To find out when their event is held, click here to input your zip code. Sign up for a teacher discount card when you go to enjoy 25% off. (I am especially impressed with the way Office Max emailed me the details of their teacher appreciation sale after reading on my blog that I was unable to get details of their sale by calling the store.)
Make sure you bring your teacher id when you go! Happy shopping!
How Can You Design and Build Your Own Blog Template?
All, I can say is WHEW!! I have spent a tough two weeks going through a break up. So, I gladly welcomed the new love into my life. I am sure you all want to hear about him. I have spent hours gazing into his face, learning all his quirks, and reading his every movement. I hope you are all happy for me. This is going to be a long term relationship…I can just sense it. They say you just know that you know when he’s the one.
Gotcha! (maybe 😀 ) The breakup of course was with my old apple-y blog. I am so glad to be rid of the old theme! When I first started blogging, I had no idea there were so many teachers that were out there blogging until I saw the “blogs” tab on TPT. When I started seeing all the other teachers’ blogs, I desired a little more personality, and I’ll just say it–cuteness–in my own blog. And so, I made that one of my summer goals. And of course, my new love affair is with my new blog because I literally poured over making the template, uploading it, and working out the glitches. The last day I worked on it, my eyes were so red and my wrist was hurting from working on the computer so many consecutive hours and days. You may think that sounds like no fun, but I found working on this project addictive!
Before
To help save you some time if you are considering building a blog, I will tell you how I did it.
1. First of all I looked at some cute templates out there for sale, but I REALLY wanted to make my own because I had a design in mind. Plus I wanted to learn how to do this for myself. At first, I thought that I would have to know computer code, but after a little digging and you tube video watching, I found out that I could use Artisteer to build blog templates. Artisteer is a program that you can download for about $50. So, I used some of my TPT money and invested in this software. They have a trial version for free that puts watermarks on your pages, but I just went ahead and bought it without trying it out because I had watched the you tube videos. (sidenote I have a word press blog, but Artisteer works for blogger too!) Click below to go to the Artisteer site.
3. Then I used Photoshop which I already had on my computer to put the cute clip art together to make my blog header. I believe you can probably get Photoshop for less on Amazon.com because I checked prices on the updated version. Every now and then though Adobe has sales on their software, so it would be worth signing up on their email list to know about sales. There may be some comparable software to Photoshop that you could put your clip art together in, but I don’t know about it. Please comment if you know of something that works better. I will warn you that Photoshop is a learning curve if you haven’t used photo editing software like it before, and you may be better off paying someone to design a header for you, or paying for a template.
4. Lesson Learned: Choose from the fonts that are web fonts on Artisteer. Don’t spend hours trying out all the cutesy fonts you have installed from elsewhere because all of the browsers (explorer, mozzilla, safari) won’t read them the same or at all for that matter. If you want cutesy fonts in your header, then you will have to install them in a picture in Photoshop. I used KevinandAmanda.com’s free fonts in my header. The only way you can have cute fonts in your posts(in word press) is if you use a widget for google web fonts, but even those aren’t always read in their cutesy-ness by devices such as an ipad. I can’t speak for blogs with a blogger platform.
*****(July 27, 2013–Since the time I originally wrote this post, I found a plug in that works wonders. It is “Use Any Font”. That plugin gave me the ability to put the cute font on my headers, titles, and hyperlinks. This plugin will change the font in your posts as well, but I opted not to do this because the font was a bit wearisome to to the eyes. The plugin was a God send. I installed it and was able to see the results within a matter of minutes. It was so easy to use!)
5. Thanks to Wayne Gretzky for helping me to make a button for my blog on his great button maker site. Also, for a really great tutorial with step by step and picture instructions on how to make a blog button, go here to my pregnancybaby.com.
I hope the above helps you if you plan on creating a blog. I still have a few glitches to work out in my own blog, but it is almost where I want it 🙂 yay me! I feel like I just won a marathon.
Pardon the Mess
I will be working on uploading a new template for my blog today, so pardon the mess as I tweak everything.
A “Lofty” Deal
Summer Fun Day #3! So I was minding my own business yesterday just meandering through some stores…I was actually looking at some office furniture to tell the truth because I was checking dimensions for my home office…when all of a sudden I stumbled into Ann Taylor Loft. I was absolutely not planning on buying ANYTHING especially because they are so pricey. Well, I discovered they were having a half off of their clearance sale…you’ve got to love a discount on clearance merchandise! So I looked a little longer than I had planned. I found an adorable all cotton sweater (it is hard to find all cotton sweaters anymore–my favorite!!!) At first I looked at the price tag and thought I saw $44–not much of a clearance. Then I looked again. Are you ready for this? The tag said $4.88. I thought that it had to be a mistake until I discovered another one just like it priced for $4.88. Below you will see my oh, so, cute new sweater which I got for$5.29 with tax :). Yay, me! I figure I can wear this in spring or fall this coming school year. I am telling you about this fabulous find so that you can go shopping, too, and find some deals. Ann Taylor Loft is friendly to teachers offering us all a 15% discount and some other perks. To sign up for their perks, click here.
